The Acquisition of the Birthplace

Nenad Ivić (University of Zagreb)

Email: nivic@ffzg.hr

 

ABSTRACT:

«Le natal c'est précisement l'acquis», writes somewhat paradoxically Gilles Deleuze in Mille plateaux. This paper explores the potentialities of this paradox from the standpoint of identity problem construed as a series of binaries (haphazardly: minority/majority; nature/nurture, body/soul, volume/book, politics/art etc.) by deconstructing the territorializations and ontologizations of identity practices in Flaubert and Proust (Mme Bovary and Recherche) which tend to promote models associated with minority cultures (Ema Bovary, baron de Charlus). A sort of antilogos, negotiating its way through the text, transforms itself into logos, acquires a birthplace and establishes itself as a discourse of dominated dominance.